We Lost It At The Movies

Here's an interesting essay that I don't quite agree with. It's about Pauline Kael and the film era she helped usher in--one that tossed aside the earnest middlebrow and created an appetite for trash.

First, of course--and the essay as much as admits it--Kael spotted the trend, but didn't create it. Spectacle, even when it comes at the expense of plot, has always been popular, and with better technology and the threat of TV, it's no surprise Hollywood went for more pyrotechnics.

Second, the mainstream has changed, but, as Kael would probably agree, most of the change is good riddance to bad rubbish. Plenty of respectable, mainstream successes in the pre-Bonnie And Clyde age were actually pretty dull. Furthermore, we'll always have the great decade that followed Bonnie And Clyde, where the rules were changed. If it didn't continue, it's probably because it was a transitional time, when Hollywood was unsure and taking chances, and a lot of talent, raised on film, was ready to take advantage.

Third, trash is usually trash, but a lot of great films that would never have been noticed before, or perhaps even made, have come out and enriched our screens. And it's hardly all that's out there. If anything, there's more choice available than ever before. Maybe we could use a little more of an earlier "tradition of quality" to ground our films, but the truth if you really want to see it, it's there--a lot of it transferred to television, which is actually in a golden age for drama. Truth is, if we ever did go back to the older, more limited choices, we'd feel stifled.